I opened the door about five this morning to let my dog out and was smacked in the face by the most wonderful blast of cold air. It was marvelous, refreshing and invigorating. I know I should have been energy conscious and quickly closed the door to save household heat but I was prodigal. I held the door open and basked in the luxury of fresh air. Wow. It was terrific.
So easily we grow accustomed to the norm we don’t notice the norm itself is degrading. In this particular incident the air in the house had slowly grown stale. But that isn’t nearly as important as the concern that we become accustomed to the values and norms of the world around us. We all do it. J. B. Phillips in his paraphrase of Romans 12 says, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”
It is so easy to grow lukewarm. All we have to do is nothing. It happens all by itself. Fortunately things happen to us, like a blast of cold air, and we are jarred into the reality of our state of being. Then it’s time to take action.
New Year’s is on our doorstep and we often make resolutions about doing better at certain things, like losing weight. That’s important for most of us. But more importantly is something we talked about yesterday – putting on and wearing “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Colossians 3. That’s a blast for everyone with which we come into contact.
Spring Of Life